Corporate Social Responsibility

Raffles Medical Group (RMG) is committed to business policies and operations that reflect the interests of its stakeholders including patients, employees, investors, the community and the environment.

The Group is committed to continuous improvement in its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy, encouraging its business partners to strive for matching performance, acting in a socially responsible way, continually improving its performance and meeting all relevant legislations, and encouraging staff to be mindful of the effect of their actions on any natural resource.

The Group is committed to ensuring that business is conducted in all respects according to rigorous ethical, professional and legal standards. All the laws that regulate and apply will be complied with. All groups and individuals with whom it has a business relationship will be treated in a fair, open and respectful manner. Competition will be reasonable and based upon the quality, value and integrity of the products and services being supplied.

The Group continually reviews all activities to ensure that best practice is observed at all times. It allows patients and vendors to provide feedback on its performance and ensures that all comments are analysed, responded to and where appropriate, acted upon. In addition, action plans will be developed to ensure that continuous improvement is achieved.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES

Our people form the nucleus of what we do in RMG. Therefore the Group strives to build a conducive work environment that reinforces its core values, namely, compassion, commitment, excellence, team-based care and value.

Raffles Healthcare Institute, the educational arm of RMG was commissioned in 2013 with the objective of nurturing and developing potential leaders who are able to enhance our values and culture.

Two Leadership Development Programmes are organised on a biennial basis:

The “Rising in Strategic Excellence” programme aims to develop managers in essential business skills in key functional areas of Leadership and People Management, Strategic Planning and Implementation, Business Development, Organisational Development, Financial Management and Communications.

The “Supervisory Training Programme” prepares supervisors to be more effective frontline leaders in achieving departmental and organisational goals, through exposure to business modules such as people management, business finances, service, operation and quality management.

FAIR EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES

The Group aims to eliminate discrimination on any grounds and promotes equal opportunities and a fair working environment. The Group adopts a human resources policy that combines a role-based system that grades individual employees based on the extent of their roles, with a performance-based approach to evaluation and compensation based on the outcomes of their job performance within their respective roles.

The Group respects the right of employees to adhere to normal or agreed working hours in accordance with Company Policy established in compliance with the laws and regulations.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

As a healthcare organisation, RMG has since 2013, subscribed to BizSAFE Level 3 as a commitment towards maintaining a safe and healthy work environment for its employees in compliance with legislative requirements. It is committed to:

Comply with all statutory safety and health requirements, and other existing standards and guidelines;

Eliminate hazards or adopt reasonably practicable means to reduce the risk of injury to its employees to an acceptable level;

Seek the involvement of various stakeholders to effectively implement Workplace Safety and Health (WSH)Policy objectives;

Improve continually through on-going reviews of WSH mechanisms; and

Provide adequate resources to ensure compliance to WSH Regulations.

RMG is also represented in the WSH Council (Healthcare) that works closely with the Ministry of Manpower and other government agencies, the industry, unions, and professional associations to develop strategies to raise WSH standards in Singapore.

Over the years, the Group has granted scholarships and bursaries as well as invested in employees pursuing degree courses, master programmes as well as other upgrading training.

Recipients of the RMG Bursary Award 2016, who are children of RMG employees, pose for a photo.

BURSARY AWARD

Introduced in 2011, the Raffles Medical Group Bursary provides financial assistance to the Group’s employees for their children’s education, thus giving them a head start in life and career. Since then, a total of 52 bursaries have been awarded, benefiting the children of 38 staff.

SCHOLARSHIP

Since its inception in 2012, the Group’s Scholarship programme has been extended to 29 students. Over the next 5 years, another $4 million will be set aside for 40 additional scholarships to students pursuing nursing, pharmacy, diagnostic radiography, occupational therapy and business management courses.

The Group will ensure that its employees uphold professional standards and workplace standards and behaviours consistent with the Group’s requirements. It is committed to working against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

The Group works with suppliers, subcontractors and other service providers to help achieve its policy aspirations in the delivery of products and services. It also encourages vendors to adopt responsible business policies and practices for mutual benefit.

The Group is committed to ensuring that the welfare of workers and labour conditions within its supply chain meet or exceed recognised standards.

NATURE AND CONSERVATION

In a bid to care for the environment, RMG has adopted several on-going green initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint.

Beginning with Raffles Hospital, lightings have been progressively changed to energy-saving bulbs and tubes. These energy-saving lights provide the same lux density without compromising on vision capability. Since the start of the project in 2013, close to 45 per cent of all lightings have been replaced, resulting in an estimated reduction of 45,000 KW in energy consumption every month.

The Hospital is also in the process of replacing its existing chillers. This initiative will make the building one of the first in Singapore to have a chiller with ultra-low global warming potential refrigerants. When completed in 2017, these new chillers which are about two times more efficient than the outgoing chillers could save 30,000 KW of energy per month.

Across the Group’s network of clinics, hard copy poster boards are being replaced with digitised boards. This initiative will reduce printing and logistical carbon footprints.

The Group endeavours to ensure that business operations comply with all applicable environmental, legal, health and safety requirements. The Group works closely with the WSH Council, Singapore Civil Defence Force, Public Utilities Board, National Environment Agency and other relevant authorities to adopt the best practices for environment sustainability.

Striving to be a good corporate citizen, RMG has developed various CSR programmes over the years. One such initiative is the creation of a charity organisation, Asian Medical Foundation (AMF), in 2003. The Foundation reaches out by serving the medical and healthcare needs of the poor and the under-privileged. There were also additional charitable outreach activities in conjunction with RMG’s 40th anniversary in 2016.

PLEDGE OF $1M TO NKF

As part of the Group’s 40th anniversary in 2016, RMG pledged a donation of $1 million to the National Kidney Foundation (NKF). The donation will go towards the setting up of the Raffles-NKF Renal Wellness Centre at Raffles Hospital as well as a Raffles-NKF Peritoneal Dialysis & Wellness Centre.

RAFFLES FAMILY FUN WALK CUM CSR DAY

A total of 94 seniors from South East CDC received free health screening at Raffles Hospital during the Raffles Family Fun Walk Cum CSR Day.

RMG organised a Family Fun Walk cum CSR Day on 9 October 2016 in partnership with the South East Community Development Council (CDC) and NTUC FairPrice. The 250 RMG employees and their families who took part in the NTUC FairPrice Walk for Rice Campaign walked more than 600 kilometres and raised over 6,000 bowls of rice for needy families in the South East district. Concurrent with the event, RMG also provided free health and dental screenings at Raffles Hospital to 94 seniors, from the district.

MEMORIES CAFÉ

Our volunteers interacting with dementia patients and their caregivers at a Memories Café outreach event.

In support of the Alzheimer’s Disease Association (ADA), AMF with ADA started a 1-year collaboration called Memories Café in May 2016. This social event provides a change in environment for caregivers and persons with dementia, to share their experiences in a safe and supportive setting, engaging in activities such as sing-along sessions and musical performances as well as social interactions over refreshments.

ZION HOME FOR THE AGED

Residents from the Zion Home for the Aged receiving medical advice from our doctors.

The Zion Home for the Aged is a shelter and home for aged females that was established in 1979 by Zion Presbyterian Church. Since June 2015, doctors from RMG have made monthly visits to provide medical consultations for the residents there. Elderly patients who require further specialist consultations are referred to Raffles Hospital for X-rays, laboratory tests and medication at no expense. Employees from RMG have also organised a “Durian Party” as well as a Christmas party at the Home, bringing warmth and cheer to the residents.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

RMG doctors and nurses regularly engage in community outreach activities such as conducting basic health screening sessions, giving health education talks on healthy ageing to senior citizens and distributing masks at community centres. Participants who attend the talks are encouraged to share their knowledge among their social circles, thereby raising the awareness of healthy ageing in the community. Some of the doctors are also involved in running clinics for foreign workers on a regular basis.